Last Strawhttp://last-straw.net
The weblog of Christiaan BriggsSun, 21 Oct 2012 18:20:53 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1How to bluff a pride of lions out of their killhttp://last-straw.net/how-to-bluff-a-pride-of-lions-out-of-their-kill/
http://last-straw.net/how-to-bluff-a-pride-of-lions-out-of-their-kill/#commentsSun, 21 Oct 2012 18:20:53 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4804http://last-straw.net/how-to-bluff-a-pride-of-lions-out-of-their-kill/feed/0How to check if your iPhone data was leakedhttp://last-straw.net/how-to-check-if-your-iphone-data-was-leaked/
http://last-straw.net/how-to-check-if-your-iphone-data-was-leaked/#commentsWed, 05 Sep 2012 11:03:01 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4783http://last-straw.net/how-to-check-if-your-iphone-data-was-leaked/feed/0Who would have thought?http://last-straw.net/who-would-have-thought/
http://last-straw.net/who-would-have-thought/#commentsFri, 23 Dec 2011 00:27:05 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4750Who would have thought when I wrote this that six years later a leading contender for nominee as Republican U.S. presidential candidate would be arguing the same thing in his campaign.

He sums up the problem with U.S. foreign policy nicely: "We don't mind our own business!"

Fun fact: U.S. military veterans have given more money to Ron Paul's campaign than all the other campaigns put together.

I chatted with some of my kid's friends - currently @ university - they paint a picture of their generation as being totally distrustful of government, politicians, the media and the financial system. They view companies as only out to take as much money off them as possible and they see those in power as cynical, self-interested people who don't have their best interests at heart.
Most don't read a newspaper and get their news online from a wide range of sources - bloggers, social media etc. Those who are on the escalator to a job and a career are pretty damning about youff culture - the Chav generation - of reality TV, obssessed with celebs and football.
They fully expect the financial system to collapse sooner or later and seem to relish this possibility so that they can fundamentally remould society when it does - more just, less polluting, less violent seems to be the aim.

A new NBER paper finds evidence for an even more intriguing and provocative hypothesis. Its authors note that those near but not at the bottom of the income distribution are often deeply ambivalent about greater redistribution.
Instead of opposing redistribution because people expect to make it to the top of the economic ladder, the authors of the new paper argue that people don’t like to be at the bottom. One paradoxical consequence of this “last-place aversion” is that some poor people may be vociferously opposed to the kinds of policies that would actually raise their own income a bit but that might also push those who are poorer than them into comparable or higher positions. The authors ran a series of experiments where students were randomly allotted sums of money, separated by $1, and informed about the “income distribution” that resulted. They were then given another $2, which they could give either to the person directly above or below them in the distribution.
In keeping with the notion of “last-place aversion”, the people who were a spot away from the bottom were the most likely to give the money to the person above them: rewarding the “rich” but ensuring that someone remained poorer than themselves.

Faced with an ultimatum, the Taliban again refused to surrender Bin Laden, who initially denied involvement, and an American-led aerial bombing campaign followed.

In fact the Taliban publicly offered in October of 2001 to hand Osama bin Laden over to a third country, provided the U.S. halted the illegal bombing of Afgh­anistan and produced the necessary evidence about involvement of Bin Laden or any of his associates in the 11 September attacks. Would they have gone through with the offer? We'll never know because Bush rejected it, put­ting an end to any possibility of a potentially peaceful, legal resolution to the events of 11 September 2001, and opened up the way for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the millions who have lost their lives or had them destroyed as a result.

]]>http://last-straw.net/jason-burkes-bin-laden-obituary-perpetuates-myth/feed/1The science of why we don’t believe sciencehttp://last-straw.net/the-science-of-why-we-dont-believe-science/
http://last-straw.net/the-science-of-why-we-dont-believe-science/#commentsWed, 27 Apr 2011 20:23:07 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4581Chris Mooney explains why facts and evidence rarely change the minds of people who have already formed a strong opinion: The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science.

Fascinating and depressing. It doesn't bode well for climate change. It seems the only reliable way to make progress is to wait for those standing in the way to die off. Which poses its own question.

If humans eventually eliminate ageing (highly likely) then this aspect of human psychology—motivated reasoning—will turn out to be our Achilles' heel. If we're unable to rely on new generations to progress good ideas, drop bad ones and fix problems then what will we rely on?

]]>http://last-straw.net/the-science-of-why-we-dont-believe-science/feed/1Strangler Fig bridgeshttp://last-straw.net/strangler-fig-bridges/
http://last-straw.net/strangler-fig-bridges/#commentsSat, 26 Feb 2011 17:52:58 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4572Human Planet, Rivers - Friend and Foe.]]>http://last-straw.net/strangler-fig-bridges/feed/0Why we shouldn’t wear bicycle helmetshttp://last-straw.net/why-we-shouldnt-wear-bicycle-helmets/
http://last-straw.net/why-we-shouldnt-wear-bicycle-helmets/#commentsFri, 21 Jan 2011 13:42:36 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4533http://last-straw.net/why-we-shouldnt-wear-bicycle-helmets/feed/3What U.S. “justice” signifies around the worldhttp://last-straw.net/what-u-s-justice-signifies-around-the-world/
http://last-straw.net/what-u-s-justice-signifies-around-the-world/#commentsTue, 11 Jan 2011 21:04:35 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4519I've long been a fervent critic of the U.S. but it wasn't always this way. The fervour came about from a realisation that much of what I was led to believe about America as a child was a lie. I don't have the same fervour when it comes to abusive powers like China and Russia. I wasn't constantly barraged with the notion that these countries are the greatest nations ever to have graced the planet with their presence. It's a high expectations, low outcomes kind of a thing.

It's quite notable that the mere threat of ending up in American custody is considered (at least by Assange's lawyers) to be a viable basis for contesting extradition on human rights grounds. Indeed, this argument is not unusual.

Indeed, almost every person I've spoken who has or had anything to do with WikiLeaks expresses one fear above all others: the possibility that they will end up in American custody and subjected to its lawless War on Terror "justice system." Americans still like to think of themselves as "leaders of the free world," but in the eyes of many, it's exactly the "free world" to which American policies are so antithetical and threatening.

So next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say “Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…” If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.

But living an honest life -– for that you need the truth. That’s the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity.

]]>http://last-straw.net/a-holiday-message-from-ricky-gervais-why-i%e2%80%99m-an-atheist/feed/0Senior New Zealand Defence Ministry officials spying for the U.S.http://last-straw.net/senior-new-zealand-defence-ministry-officials-spying-for-the-u-s/
http://last-straw.net/senior-new-zealand-defence-ministry-officials-spying-for-the-u-s/#commentsSun, 19 Dec 2010 22:56:46 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4486reporting this morning on U.S. cables, obtained by WikiLeaks, that reveal senior New Zealand Defence Ministry officials have been spying for the U.S., in this case secretly briefing the United States embassy on Cabinet discussions about the Iraq war.
I would hope they are tracked down and kindly relieved of their duties. Count me as an indignant "other-worlder."]]>http://last-straw.net/senior-new-zealand-defence-ministry-officials-spying-for-the-u-s/feed/0Adobe and Flash vs. Apple, the iPad and HTML5http://last-straw.net/adobe-and-flash-vs-apple-the-ipad-and-html5/
http://last-straw.net/adobe-and-flash-vs-apple-the-ipad-and-html5/#commentsFri, 29 Oct 2010 18:08:01 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4475So it would seem Apple is helping to win the battle for an open web based on HTML5.

Mefeedia, a video search engine, is reporting that "54% of web video is now available for playback in HTML5 (H.264 mostly)". Up from 10% in January.

Meanwhile Adobe has bitten the bullet and is building HTML5 export capability into Flash Pro, their Flash authoring tool. And not a moment too soon.

Nack makes a pertinent point about Adobe's motives:

Flash is great for a lot of things ... It’s not the only game in town, however, and Adobe makes its money selling tools, not giving away players.

Indeed indeed. And what they'll be pissed about is that anyone can build HTML5 authoring tools, which means they're not the only game in town either. With Flash, Adobe is the only game in town and they were well on the way to completely controlling rich content on the web. Control this and Flash Pro would have become a money tree for Adobe, degrading the web in the process.

What does Apple have to gain from an open web and the demise of Flash? The same thing as everybody else, a level playing field.

The paradox for NATO and the Americans is that in September, 2010, they will have deployed the largest number of troops they ever had in Afghanistan, and yet that is when they are the most vulnerable, as the supply needs for this huge force are potentially crippling.

Many of the commenters took issue with my rude tone toward the CBP officers. This criticism is profoundly misguided.

To the authoritarian mind, there are only two responses to a demand: submission or defiance, and anything less than total submission is defiance.

(via Jonathan Wight)]]>http://last-straw.net/the-world-needs-more-dicks-like-this/feed/0New Zealand just became a dictatorshiphttp://last-straw.net/new-zealand-just-became-a-dictatorship/
http://last-straw.net/new-zealand-just-became-a-dictatorship/#commentsTue, 14 Sep 2010 14:37:19 +0000http://last-straw.net/new-zealand-just-became-a-dictatorship/No Right Turn has the low down:

Oh, not in practice, of course. But in form. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill, passed unanimously less than an hour ago, gives Brownlee the power to repeal or modify practically any law on our statute book, without even having to refer to Cabinet, let alone Parliament.

]]>http://last-straw.net/new-zealand-just-became-a-dictatorship/feed/0Buy your own fucking stop signshttp://last-straw.net/buy-your-own-fucking-stop-signs/
http://last-straw.net/buy-your-own-fucking-stop-signs/#commentsSun, 12 Sep 2010 19:00:36 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4392Fuck the South.]]>http://last-straw.net/buy-your-own-fucking-stop-signs/feed/0Boy racers taking Christchurch earthquake in their stridehttp://last-straw.net/boy-racers-taking-christchurch-earthquake-in-their-stride/
http://last-straw.net/boy-racers-taking-christchurch-earthquake-in-their-stride/#commentsSun, 05 Sep 2010 19:34:24 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4381]]>http://last-straw.net/boy-racers-taking-christchurch-earthquake-in-their-stride/feed/4Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?http://last-straw.net/hey-hey-tony-hey-how-many-kids-have-you-killed-today/
http://last-straw.net/hey-hey-tony-hey-how-many-kids-have-you-killed-today/#commentsSat, 04 Sep 2010 20:51:47 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4357Tony Blair has penned a six-page introduction to the American version of his blood money memoirs, in which he had this to say about recent U.S. presidents:

‘Mere mortals are still inspired by a certain awe,’ he gushes.

Bill Clinton is ‘an extraordinary mixture of easygoing charm and ferocious intellectual capacity. Probably . . . he is the most formidable politician I ever met.’ President Bush ‘has great intuition.’ And of Barack Obama, he says: ‘The personal character is clear: this is a man with steel in every part of him.’

"It really is shameful that somebody can be responsible for the death and destruction that he was responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan and walk away without any accounting for that and become a very wealthy man off the back of it."

]]>http://last-straw.net/hey-hey-tony-hey-how-many-kids-have-you-killed-today/feed/0Apple’s attention to detailhttp://last-straw.net/apples-attention-to-detail/
http://last-straw.net/apples-attention-to-detail/#commentsThu, 26 Aug 2010 18:13:51 +0000http://last-straw.net/?p=4326People often falsely assume I advocate and use Apple products because I think they're trendy or because I'm some kind of gadget freak.

The truth is our world is awash with badly designed, badly crafted things. Apple is one of the few havens in a sea of people and organisations that don't give a fuck about the details. Attention to detail is why I use Apple products:

In July 2002, Apple filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” …They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”

The other day, I noticed that my friend’s Dell laptop had a similar feature but with a shorter fade-in-fade-out period. Its rate was around 40 blinks per second, or the average respiratory rate for adults during strenuous exercise—not very indicative of something in sleep-mode.

It’s interesting how a lot of companies try to copy Apple but never seem to get it right. This is yet another example of Apple’s obsessive attention to detail.

David A. Moss, an economic and policy historian at the Harvard Business School, has spent years studying income inequality. While he has long believed that the growing disparity between the rich and poor was harmful to the people on the bottom, he says he hadn’t seen the risks to the world of finance, where many of the richest earn their great fortunes.
Now, as he studies the financial crisis of 2008, Mr. Moss says that even Wall Street may have something serious to fear from inequality — namely, another crisis.

Höffner contends … that the near absence of copyright law in eighteenth and nineteenth century Germany laid the groundwork for the "Gründerzeit"—the enormous wave of economic growth that Deutschland experienced in the middle and later nineteenth century.